Downey, Terry

• Ph.D., Analytical Chemistry, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign 

• B.A., Chemistry, Knox College, Galesburg, Ill.

Our research group is working to bring a photochemically activated naphthalimide compound to market as a treatment for Peripheral Arterial Disease (PAD). The naphthalimide compound functions by cross-linking collagen in the arterial wall after treatment with angioplasty, providing a natural scaffold that prevents vessel recoil. Currently product efficacy is demonstrated in test methods that require the use of ex vivo swine arteries. These methods are time and labor intensive and not an ideal product screening tool. A summer research project (2011) generated preliminary evidence that gel electrophoresis could be used for determination of product efficacy by analyzing collagen solutions cross-linked using photochemically active naphthalimides. This BRIN project would be an extension of this previous work and would focus on assessing the quantitative ability of this method.